In response to mounting concerns about the current drought situation in
Ethiopia, the disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) announced
that the government had pledged 20,000 M/T of grain to meet the rising relief
needs of the country. In a press release issued on 24 June the DPPC stated
that the grain would be borrowed from the Emergency Food Security Reserve for
distribution in the most seriously drought affected areas of the country.
Repayment to the EFSR will be made in 2000 through local purchases. This
special allocation is in addition to over US$ 5 million the government has
spent over these last few months to cover distribution and transport costs for
55,000 M/T of food aid secured from donors since April 1999.

Additional pledges have also been announced by Canada, US, UK and the
Netherlands but the overall pledge situation remains alarmingly low. The new
pledge from the Ethiopian government, combined with these new donor pledges,
will provide sufficient food to cover next month's requirements but additional
pledges are urgently needed if a major humanitarian crisis is to be avoided.

The DPPC, in cooperation with the UN Country Team, organised four missions in
June to the most severly affected areas of the country. Although these were
"non-food" missions organised to determine the most urgent non-food needs in
connection with the drought, all missions reported that increased food
distributions were the top prioirty in all areas visited, stating that, "this
requirement will override all other non-food needs". Along with increased
relief distributions the teams noted that signficantly more supplementary food
was needed if the downward sprial in malnutrition were to be stopped. In a few
particularly badly affected areas the situation has derteriorated to such an
extent that therapeutic feeding centers may have to be established.

A very brief summary of the main findings of the missions is given below:

The UN/DPPC assessment mission returned on 25 June and reported that although
food distributions had increased, the situation remained extremely precarious
with conditions in South Wello being particularly severe. Stress migration,
although it has tapered off and people have begun to return to their homes with
the arrival of relief food, started as early as January and February and the
Zonal authorities estimated that by April over 12,000 people had migrated from
their home weredas.

Local health facilities also reported increasing rates of malnutrition and
little or no supplementary food available for distribution. Other signs of
extreme stress included poor terms of trade, sale of assets, increased firewood
sales accompanied with declining firewood prices and higher dropout rates from
schools than normal.

The team also reported that the condition of livestock in South Wello was
alarming with animal carcasses lining the road. The Zone estimates livestock
deaths of over 38,000 between January and April but this may be a very
conservative figure as both Legambo and Tenta weredas each reported over 20,000
livestock deaths. Although recent rains have brought some relief to other
areas of the country, South Wello was still dry at the time of the mission's
visit - so dry in fact that domestic animals, together with baboons, were seen
to be scratching in the dried fields in an attempt to find a few un-germinated
seeds.

Wag Hamra is not a belg producing area itself but it has suffered from
several successive years of poor meher harvests. The poor performance
of the 1999 belg season has, however, had a significant impact on the
population as many of the poorer families depend on labour opportunities in the
surrounding belg producing areas to the north, east and south of the
zone. These traditional employment opportunities come during the farmer's
leanest time and during a period when there is little activity on their own
land and form an important part of a family coping strategy. This year
traditional labour migrations were replaced by stress migrations as whole
households began to move when they realised that the harvest would not cover
their needs until the next season.

Other indicators of a deteriorating situation include a decline in nutrition
status noted by the SCF/UK Nutritional Surveillance Program, increased firewood
sales, the sale of dung for the first time, decreases in school attendance and
increasingly poor terms of trade between livestock and grain with oxen and cows
prices falling over the last few years from 700/600 birr per animal around 400
birr and lower. Interestingly and of some relief to the farmers, shoat prices
have remained relatively constant as livestock traders from Tigray have been
buying up sheep and goats. However, even though shoat prices have not
declined, high grain prices still mean that farmers must sell three shoats in
order to buy 50 kgs of grain.

South Tigray

A poor meher harvest followed by the failure of this year's
belg has affected six weredas in South Tigray and of these the DPPC/UN
mission was told that Ofla, Alamata and Raya Azebo were considered the most
severely affected. Although food shortages were noted as early as January 1999,
because of lack of supplies, distributions were not started until March. Also,
with the increase in beneficiaries, available rations had to be spread more and
more thinly and in many cases zonal authorities are only in a position to
provide half rations. The zonal authorities also noted that even the current
(27 May) beneficiary figures might have to be increased. Water supplies in
these three severely affected weredas were also noted as an issue with some
communities even having to institute water-rationing systems.

As with the other missions, the South Tigray team noted that the key to solving
the current crisis was to increase relief distributions and provide
supplementary food for malnourished children. Although increased food was
considered the absolute priority if mass migrations were to be avoided, other
important interventions included improving and expanding health services and
the repair of selected water points.

As early as October 1998 the UN EUE reported unusual migrations out of East
Harerge as families moved south to Jijiga in search of relief food
distributions. Although this flow was eventually stemmed, a follow-up EUE
mission at the end of April noted that stress migrations had started again with
people now moving to urban centers in search of food or labor opportunities.
The most recent DPPC/UN mission found that there was still considerable
movement of people with some returning home while others remained congregated
around distribution centers and urban towns.

Initially food insecurity problems were most acute in the lowland areas of East
Harerge but with the poor performance of the belg rains other areas of
the zone began to face increasing hardship. Although the exact number of
people needing relief assistance remains confused, the DPPC 27 May beneficiary
figure of 572,000 would appear to be a minimum number. The DPPC/UN mission
also found it difficult to obtain accurate information on relief distributions
but in any case it was obvious to the mission that the limited availability of
food during the previous three or four months had had a negative impact on the
population. As usual, children and mothers were particularly affected by food
shortages and increased rates of malnutrition were noted in all the weredas
visited.

Welayita, although green and fertile, is considered to be one of the most food
insecure areas of the country. Small landholdings combined with a
"hand-to-mouth" existence because of complete reliance on the next crop make
this area particularly vulnerable to "green famines". This year the short
rains in October/November were poor and disrupted the planting of the sweet
potato crop which, along with enset (false banana), are an important
staple in Welayita, normally filling the major part of the food gap during the
hungry season that precedes the belg harvest in July/August.

The DPPC/UN non-food assessment mission that recently visited Welayita noted
that numerous children and mothers in the most severely affected weredas were
suffering from malnutrition. Signs of severe stress included the absence of
any food stocks at the household level, sale of assets and even the dismantling
of homes in order to sell the timber to buy food,

deteriorating terms of trade, increased dropouts from schools and numerous
cases of acute malnutrition. This mission, as with the other three missions,
noted that increased regular food distributions and supplementary food were
essential. Because of the rapid decline in the nutritional status of children,
therapeutic feeding may have to be undertaken in some areas of Welayita.

Konso Special Wereda has a population of about 186,000 in 29 PAs of which 22
are reported to affected (10 seriously, 8 moderately and 4 mildly.) Konso has
suffered successive years of drought and poor harvests and this year the rains
were particularly poor, either being excessive or, in the case of this year's
belg, almost a complete failure.

The DPPC/UN mission reported that conditions were severe with many chronic and
acute cases of malnutrition among children and that the weredas had little food
to meet the immediate crisis. (Because of very limited stocks, only about 6 kgs
per household were distributed in the two previous distributions). Although
this was a "non-food" mission, it was obvious to the mission members that the
highest priority was to increase basic ration distributions. The mission also
noted that without increased basic rations any supplies of supplementary foods
will be consumed by the general population rather than the children and
mothers.

Because there has been little or no food distributions over the last few years
the local population has relied more and more heavily on wild foods. Although
an effective short-term coping strategy, wild foods are not a substitute for
regular rations and the nutritional status of both children and adults has
deteriorated sharply. In addition to the significant increase in the
consumption of "famine foods", other signs of stress included numerous cases of
severe malnutrition and the sale of assets.

In view of the alarming situation developing in many areas of the country the
United Nations Country Team is planning to issue a special appeal in early July
highlighting both the urgent need for additional food pledges as well as the
critical "non-food" inputs needed to contain the situation. However, as time
is short, donors are urged to respond to the DPPC's food appeal and WFP's
Emergency Operation for the drought affected without delay.

DISCLAIMER

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this document do
not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the UN concerning the
legal status of any country, territory, city or area of its authorities, or
concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.